


unreachable things (like you)

by lvecean



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (it comes with the pining xoxo), Actor Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Actors, Crushes, Everyone Thinks They're Together, Gay Keith (Voltron), Idiots in Love, Jealous Keith (Voltron), Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), slight allura/lance but they're just friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 02:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lvecean/pseuds/lvecean
Summary: Lance laughed. “Get distracted, pretty boy?” He chuckled and leaned closer to Keith.“No,” Keith said, but even to his own ears it did not sound very convincing. “You’re just…”“The best actor the world has ever seen?” Lance smirked, shooting a stupid stupid wink Keith’s way that only made the other boy’s cheeks pink. “I know.”Keith huffed, shaking his head a bit to (hopefully) hide most of his blush behind his bangs. “Sure, Lance,” he said.





	unreachable things (like you)

**Author's Note:**

> hello uwu
> 
> lemme start by saying this whole thing was based off [this tweet](https://twitter.com/KeithyyBoi/status/1135990586127912961) give them a follow their klance head canons are 10/10 
> 
> also, a few things before we start!!  
> \- i picture lance and keith to be around 23/24 - just out of college and in my head keith works as an architect, but you can make of it what you want, really  
> \- i abuse italics in this i am sorry  
> \- keith listens to avril lavigne and no i don't take criticism  
> \- let's pretend that it's totally normal for a producer to build an entire airport set just to shoot one scene uwu  
> \- please ignore the incorrect way i describe the whole filming process, it just fit better in the story ksjsk  
> \- the quotes i use are from (or inspired by) the following songs: "wake up" by EDEN, "stressed out" by top and "saturn" by Sleeping at Last
> 
> umm yeah that's it. i hope you like it more than i do <3

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ how many times have i wanted to kiss you? you’d have to count every grain of sand. every star in the sky ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Lance swallowed, his eyes flicking up to Keith’s again. The sheer  _ hurt _ in them made Keith’s breath hitch. “I- I’m just…  _ so sorry. _ I- “ Lance gripped the ends of his hair and tugged as a sad chuckle left his lips. “I thought I could fix this. Fix  _ us _ . But… I guess. I only made things worse.” When he looked up again, his eyes were actually filled with tears. The first one made its way down Lance’s cheek and the boy sniffed. “ _ Fuck…  _ I… didn’t mean to cry. Sorry.” He looked up at Keith and attempted a little smile. 

A silence fell between the two of them. 

And it dragged on.

And on. 

And then Lance coughed. “ _ Keith _ ,” he hissed. 

“Oh. Oh, right. Fuck, sorry.” Keith scrambled with the papers in his hands, trying to flip them upright in his hands so he could read the text. “Uhh, where were we?” 

Lance laughed — a weird sight with the tears still clinging to his cheeks. “Get distracted, pretty boy?” He chuckled and leaned closer to Keith and quickly skimmed the page before pointing at the right line. 

“ _ No _ ,” Keith said, but even to his own ears it did not sound very convincing. “You’re just…” 

“ _ The best actor the world has ever seen? _ ” Lance smirked, shooting a stupid  _ stupid _ wink Keith’s way that only made the other boy’s cheeks pink. “I know.” 

Keith huffed, shaking his head a bit to (hopefully) hide most of his blush behind his bangs. “Sure, Lance,” he said. And he was actually quite proud of the relative steadiness his voice contained. 

Lance snickered and —  _ thank god _ — leaned back so he stood in front of Keith again. The easy grin still resting on his lips as he regarded Keith with a relaxed expression. He reached out and gently tapped the page where Keith was already reading the next lines. “Let’s take a break, yeah?” 

Keith took a breath and closed the thick script. When he looked up, Lance had already disappeared into the kitchen and he could hear him messing with the kettle.  _ Dammit _ . He really,  _ seriously _ needed to get his thoughts under control. He couldn’t space out every time Lance used those blue eyes on him. 

And they weren’t even really meant for him, either. 

He swallowed and looked up when he heard the first whistles of a song coming from the kitchen. Lance was an  _ actor _ . And a good one at that. The whole purpose of these rehearsals was so that Lance could get used to practicing his lines with other people, instead of reading the counterparts himself. And Keith’s…  _ feelings _ were getting in the way of that. He couldn’t allow that. 

But,  _ fuck _ , it was so hard to ignore the lilt to Lance’s eyebrows, his normally ever-smiling lips turned down in a distressed frown and the  _ tears.  _ Those gorgeous ocean eyes filled to the brim with tears. It hurt Keith to watch Lance’s face twist into such a sad expression. Made him want to cradle Lance’s face and wipe the tears from his cheeks. 

Keith sighed and mentally kicked himself under the butt.  _ Get over it, Kogane. It’s just a stupid crush. Get over it.  _

Shaking himself out of this particular train of thought, he sank down into the couch. Perfectly content to just wait for Lance to bring him his mug instead of helping him.

When Lance entered the room, he was carrying two mugs of tea. He handed Keith his favorite  _ Gravity Falls _ mug — the black one, with Bill Cypher in front of a blue flame saying “I got my eye on you” that Lance once got him from  _ Redbubble  _ — and plopped down on their tiny couch next to him. 

“What do you want to watch?” he asked, as he picked up the remote and turned on their crappy tv. 

Keith shrugged. Not really in the mood to watch anything, and besides, their breaks usually lasted about thirty minutes before they continued rehearsing again. Lance skipped through the channels until he found a hundredth rerun of a  _ Brooklyn99  _ episode. Keith could feel him cast a quick glance his way, but when Keith did not object, he placed the remote down and settled into the cushions.

The show started, but Keith had trouble staying focused. 

His brain had apparently decided that the way Lance’s arm was pressed against his, and shook every time the other boy laughed, was  _ way more  _ interesting than Jake and Captain Holt’s halloween bets. 

It just wasn’t fair. Why had his brain  _ suddenly _ decided it quite liked the way Lance’s eyes caught the light and seemed to  _ sparkle _ ? Why had it decided to like the boy’s smooth,  _ smooth _ skin, and those adorable freckles? They’d finally, after months and months of Lance claiming them rivals grown passed that — forgotten bonding moments forgiven, and they’d started over. They had not been just forced roommates, but  _ friends _ . And Keith had loved every second of it. 

Or. Well. Almost every second. Lance still did not clean up after himself, and let Keith do most of the dishes, but he made up for that by cooking dinner most nights and cleaning the entire apartment once every month. 

They’d made things work. And not just that, they’d become  _ real friends _ and Keith… did not have a lot of those. 

So. Yeah, everything had been completely, perfectly, fine. 

But then everything had to be messed up when suddenly Lance’s broad shoulders seemed perfect to lay his hands upon and wrap his arms around, when he’d started wondering if the short brown curls on Lance’s head were really as soft as they looked, and if Lance’s hand would fit around his own just as perfectly as he imagined it would, and if— 

His pondering got interrupted when Lance suddenly jumped off the couch and ran back into the kitchen. Keith frowned and drank the last sip of his tea. 

Lance came back cupping two fortune cookies in his hands. With a grin, the boy shrugged and sat back down again. “We didn’t have anything else. I think they were left over from last Friday.” He held one of the cookies out for Keith to take.

Keith accepted his wordless offer, and took the cookie from him. He bent down to place his mug on the floor (they’d been planning on buying a coffee table ever since they moved in, but Lance refused to spend his money on something as dumb as a coffee table when it could  _ also _ be spent something  _ not dumb _ like an icecream machine that really only worked when none of their other appliances were plugged in). He then raised his cookie and said, “Cheers.” 

Lance clinked his cookie against Keith’s with a little smile that made Keith’s heart lunge into his throat.

They cracked their cookies open at the same time and Lance immediately unfolded the small slip of paper inside of his. He was silent as he read. “An unexpected relationship will become apparent,” Lance said softly. 

And was Keith imagining the soft, pinkish blush that painted Lance’s cheeks?

A silence fell between them. Uncharacteristically awkward for the two of them. 

“Well,” Keith tried for a joke, “maybe Allura will finally go on that date with you?” He forced a smile on his face, hoping that it didn’t look as strained as it felt. 

Keith had expected Lance to scoff and go,  _ Allura and I’s relationship is anything  _ but _ unexpected, pretty boy _ and Keith would blush at the ‘pretty boy’ and roll his eyes and scoff to cover up the fact that he was  _ this close  _ to going green with jealousy. 

Instead, Lance chuckled awkwardly and said, “Yeah… maybe.” 

Keith frowned, and was about to open his mouth to ask Lance what was wrong — it had, after all, only been two weeks ago that he’d burst into their apartment, panting and flushed from running all across campus, and declaring his unconditional love to his co-actress — when Lance spoke up. “Well, samurai, let’s see what yours says.” 

(Could Lance stop with the nicknames? They were not at all good for Keith’s heart.) 

Keith nodded, still a bit wary about Lance’s lack of a comeback and unfolded his own slip of paper. As soon as his eyes swept over the words, his cheeks darkened. He flitted his eyes up to Lance and swallowed.

_ Jealousy is unattractive - show some other emotion. _

For real? 

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ i don’t wanna fall like the stars ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Between the stupid cookie basically telling him to swap his jealousy for whatever lovestruck face it wanted him to  _ show _ , and his brain shouting at him to keep rolling his eyes and hiding his flush behind his bangs, Keith did not know what to do. 

Lance had brought their mugs back to kitchen (and  _ actually _ put them in the dishwasher for once in his life, instead of just dropping them on the counter for Keith to clean up after him) and he was currently flipping the pages of his thick script with a frown on his face. 

In a brief moment of weakness (that Keith had found himself experiencing more and more) a scenario flashed through his mind where he’d reach up his thumbs to gently smooth the wrinkles out of Lance’s eyebrows. Lance would look up and his eyes would crinkle at the sides as his lips tugged upwards in a soft smile. He’d lean the small distance between them and gently kiss Keith on the lips before leaning back. Or, he’d  _ try _ to lean back, but Keith would wrap his hands around the back of his neck and— 

“Keith!” 

Keith returned back to earth at the hard snap of Lance’s fingers in front of his face. He blinked a few times and flushed as he took in the decrease of distance between their faces. 

“Wow, man.” Lance chuckled, leaning back. Keith didn’t know whether to curse or bless their new personal space. “You were way out of it.” His careless grin turned into a slightly worried frown as his eyes trailed all over Keith’s face, presumably looking for any indications about what was wrong with Keith. “Is there… something on your mind?” The tall boy shifted, folding one leg underneath himself to face Keith fully on the couch. “You know you can talk to me right?” 

For a second it seemed too appealing. Just… coming clean about everything. Saying,  _ hey, yeah, I’m actually super in love with you. I can’t stop thinking about kissing you. Please kiss me.  _ Like that would go over well. Shit. Lance would probably be really sweet about it too. Scratch the back of his neck and laugh a bit awkwardly (adorably) as he muttered something about how he didn’t feel the same, sorry, but they could still be friends, right? 

Yeah. Right. 

“Uhh,” Keith looked down at his hands and swallowed. He hated lying to Lance. Hated it. When he looked up again he could only hope the slight wetness to his eyes wasn’t noticeable. Fuck. “Yeah. I know. I’m just tired. Don’t worry about it.” He was pretty proud of himself for managing a small (though watery) smile. 

Lance clearly didn’t buy the excuse, but something must’ve told him not to push it because he was silent for a moment before looking down at the stack of paper in his hands. “We can stop for today. It’s okay, you can… take a nap… or something.” 

Keith didn’t know since when conversations between them had turned this awkward. Probably somewhere between Keith admitting to himself that he was staring just a tad too long at Lance’s exposed collarbones, and his fantasies about latching his lips to said collarbones and whispering  _ IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou _ . 

“No!” Keith exclaimed, half shooting up off the couch in his desperation to keep Lance here. “I… I mean,” he coughed and settled down again. “I don’t mind helping you. I promised you, right?” 

Lance’s squinted eyes regarded Keith suspiciously for a second before he blinked a few times and shifted his papers again. “Okay, then. If you insist.” He lifted the pages up to his face and squinted to read the tiny number at the bottom of the page. Keith, who’d worn contacts since his 21st, and glasses the two years before that, snickered softly as he watched Lance struggle. He kept telling the stubborn boy to just buy a pair of reading glasses but, no, Keith, I’m not  _ old _ . “Page… 135.”

Keith quickly smoothed the wrinkles in his script where he’d gripped it a bit too aggressively in his agony, and flipped to the right page. 

His eyes fell on a line in the middle of the page and—

_ Antonio cradles Sarah’s face in his hands. He smiles at her and softly wipes her tears away.  _

**_Antonio_ **

_ Mi amor, te amo. Te amo tanto, tanto.  _

Keith swallowed. Well, fuck.

  
  


‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ i’m used to dreaming of outer space and other unreachable things ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

  
  


Keith’s eyes flew over the page Lance had chosen to practice. 

_ It was all a mistake! I never meant to hurt you, Sarah, please. It’s too late Antonio, it’s too late. We never would’ve worked. No. No. Please, Sarah. Sarah! I love you! I love you. Antonio…  _

And then… a kiss. 

This… this was fine. Keith could totally do this. Right? Right. He could… pretend to be the Sarah to Lance’s Antonio. The lover who got hurt but never able to escape love’s hold on her. This was  _ fine _ . 

“Alrighty,” Lance plopped down on the couch in front of Keith again. Two glasses of water stood on the coffee table in front of them. “You ready to start?” He watched Keith with an open face, excited to start practicing what was probably one of the most emotional and heart-wrenching scenes in the movie. 

“Uhh,” Keith said, like an intellectual. He swallowed and fumbled with the papers in his hands, just to have something to look at other than Lance’s pretty face. “Yeah. I guess.” 

Lance didn’t seem to pick up on Keith’s hesitancy, instead jumping up off the couch and clapping his hands. Did Keith imagine the way he seemed to angle his body just so that Keith was unable to see his face? And that quick downward movement with his hands, was he wiping nervous sweat on his jeans? 

“Okay okay okay okay okay,” Lance rambled, turning the pages of his script almost frantically. 

Keith raised an eyebrow. What the fuck? Since when did Lance get nervous about practicing scenes? He always knew his lines and he was a  _ great _ actor. Which, was exactly Keith’s problem. “You okay, man?” Keith asked tentatively as he, too, stood up. 

“Hmm? Yes, I’m okay.” Lance looked up, managed a strained smile and then threw his script away. He rolled his shoulders and neck, and when he opened his eyes, beamed down at Keith. “Let’s do this, baby.” 

Keith  _ knew _ that the pet name wasn’t meant like  _ that _ .  _ He knew that _ . So why exactly did his heart speed up a bit? 

“Shall we start, then?” Lance smiled at him. Blue eyes sparkling and hair adorably curly. Keith kind of wanted to kiss him. 

Keith gripped the papers tightly and nodded, hoping his poker face wasn’t as bad as Shiro always liked to say it was. “Yeah. Let’s do it.” 

Lance nodded, then furrowed his eyebrows and turned away from Keith. Keith watched as the other man breathed in deeply once, then let the air escape and his shoulders drop simultaneously. When he turned around again, he wasn’t Lance anymore, he was Antonio. 

“ _ Sarah _ ,” he said, panting like he’d just ran a marathon, “wait. Don’t—” he swallowed as if he had trouble talking because of the lack of air, “don’t step on that plane.” 

Keith looked up into Lance’s desperate, blue, blue eyes and swallowed before carefully reciting Sarah’s next line. “Antonio, what are you doing here?” He flicked his eyes to the side, just as the script directed him to and then said, “I thought you were with Francesca.” He scowls just slightly as he says the other woman’s name — like Sarah probably would. 

Lance’s eyes widen and he splutters as he answers, taking a step closer to Keith, who now has to crane his head up a bit to look into his friend’s eyes. “Sarah… Francesca was never… we never…” 

Keith rolls his eyes and turns his head away, fixing his eyes on picture of Varadero beach that sticks to their wall with two pieces of Lance’s colorful washi tape. “Antonio. Stop.” He closes his eyes, and looks down, as if even just talking about the other woman caused his heart to clench. “I don’t want to hear it. I have a plane to catch.” And if he’d really been Sarah, he would’ve grabbed his suitcases and pushed past Lance. As it was, he just shot another quick look at the script and bumped his shoulder into Lance’s as he stalked away. 

But Lance catching his elbow had him spinning around quickly. “Sarah,  _ please _ . Let me explain. There was nothing—” 

“I don’t  _ care _ , Antonio.” Keith turned to Lance, eyes sharp and cutting through the blue ones in front of him. “I’ve had enough of your  _ lies _ and your—” 

“I’m not lying!” Lance exclaimed, immediately catching himself and looking around the small living room as if they really were in an airport and people might’ve been bothered by his loud volume. “I’m not lying,” he said again, softer this time. “I’ve been nothing but honest with you since the day we met.” 

Keith squints his eyes at the man in front of him and purses his lips like he could imagine Sarah doing in this situation. “So, you were honest when you told me you had to work extra hours, week after week after week? And you were honest when you said you needed some time for yourself, when  _ actually _ you were spending time with  _ Francesca _ ? And you mean to tell me that you were honest when—” 

“Sarah,  _ please _ . Just let me—” Lance is pleading, eyebrows furrowed and the corners of his lips turned down in distress. Keith’s fingers twitch with the need to caress those cheeks and tell him he didn’t mean anything of what he’d just said. It’d all been Sarah.  _ Stupid Sarah _ who could not even see the beautiful man she had standing in front of her. 

“ _ No _ , Antonio,” Keith whips his head up, hair swishing around his face with the force of the movement. “I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore. Save your pretty words for someone else.” Keith took a step back, the desperation in Lance’s eyes grew at the growing distance between them. 

“Sarah!” he exclaimed, hand reaching up to touch Keith’s elbow again, but he seemed to think better of it and retracted his hand again. “It was all a mistake! I never meant to hurt you. Sarah,  _ please _ , just-” Tears were starting to form in the actor’s eyes and Keith couldn’t take it anymore, had to look away. 

“It’s too late Antonio,” he forced his eyes to meet Lance’s as he spit out the words. “It’s too late. We never would’ve worked together.” He sighed and closed his eyes, taking a moment to breathe before he looked up into Lance’s blue eyes again. He smiled sadly as he said, “Goodbye, Antonio.” And turned around. 

He only got to take three steps until Lance was speaking his next lines. “No.  _ No. _ Please, Sarah.  _ Sarah! _ ” Lance’s voice was dripped in a longing so sad, Keith had to close his eyes and will his heart to calm down. “I love you.” The three words cut through their apartment. 

And Keith’s heart — it was soaring, frantically flapping its wings and trying to break free. He stood still, not daring to make a single sound, eyes closed as he listened to Lance’s footsteps approach. A hand was placed on his shoulder and long fingers curled into his shirt. 

Slowly, Keith turned around, not having to act speechless, for he really lacked all words. 

Lance’s hand travelled up from his shoulder to the side of neck, thumb brushing the edge of his jaw. Keith looked into Lance’s tear-filled eyes, saw the slack eyebrows and slight tilt to his lips. He looked like he was holding the most beautiful thing in the world in his arms. 

Keith shivered.  _ He’s just acting. He’s an actor. It’s what he does. _

Lance’s eyes were trained to Keith’s lips as his thumb brushed back and forth on his jaw. And then—

He was leaning in. Those blue eyes lidded as Lance kept them glued to Keith’s mouth. Unconsciously, Keith swiped his tongue over his bottom lip. He was close enough to see the spark passing through Lance’s blue eyes. 

Lance leaned in even closer. His breath hitting Keith’s mouth and chin. Tension was high — Keith was frozen, didn’t dare move lest he made a wrong one. 

And Keith was sure, he was  _ sure _ , that Lance was going to close the barely-there distance between — cross the bridge and  _ kiss him _ . 

“I love you,” Lance said, breathlessly. Keith’s eyes slid shut and he  _ knew _ . “I love you, Keith.” 

_I love you, Keith._ _I love you, Keith. I love you… Keith?_

Keith’s eyes shot open and he jerked backwards. “You… wh- what?” His cheeks were ablaze, mouth and eyes wide open as he stared in shock at his friend. 

For a moment Lance just looked incredibly confused, his hand fell back to his side as he stood. Then, it seemed the words replaced in his head and his eyes blew wide. An embarrassed flush pinkened his cheeks and his blue eyes turned icy. 

“No! No, that’s not—” He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck, shoulders hiking up to his ears. “That’s not what i meant, uhh. I mean… I love you, I do.” And Keith’s heart had the nerve to pick up in speed at these words. Lance continued talking, whole body screaming awkwardness. “Just not… not like that.” 

And just like that, Keith’s heart shattered. It fell down to the floor, wings crushed, broken and twitching pathetically. Lance loved him. Just not in the way he loved Lance. That was… it was fine. He had not been expecting anything else. 

So, why did it still hurt so damn much? 

“Like,” Lance was scrambling to say something, “you’re my best friend, you know? And I love you for that.” 

Keith’s eyes were downcast as he was fighting against the tears. They were best friends. He knew that, had always known that. And had always known that would be all they’d be. Lance didn’t want him like that. He wasn’t Lance’s type, and there’d been no chance of them falling in love. He  _ knew that _ . So, really, what right did he have feeling this heartbroken? 

“Umm,” Lance was scratching the inside of his left elbow with his right hand, a nervous habit he’d had since forever. “Keith? Buddy? Is… everything okay?” 

Keith nodded. “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” He looked up into Lance’s blue eyes before diverting them to the script now wrinkled in his tight grip. “I know you love me, Lance. And I…” he sucked in a breath, “I love you too.”  _ More than you know. _ “So, I’m pretty tired.” Without looking at the other man, he placed his script on the coffee table next to their glasses of water. “I’m just gonna go to bed early. Bye, Lance.” 

He was out of the room in a second, just catching the tail end of a sad, “Bye, Keith.” 

As soon as he closed his bedroom door behind him, Keith rammed his headphones on and pressed his face in his pillow, willing himself not to cry because he wasn’t an  _ idiot _ . 

Maybe if he hadn’t, maybe if he’d stayed awake he would’ve heard Lance’s footsteps stopping just outside of his door an hour later. Maybe he would’ve heard Lance’s broken whisper of, “I’m so sorry,” a slight pause, and then, “I do love you like that,” before the boy shuffled down the hallway to his own bedroom. 

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ and so the galaxy sings ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Three weeks later, Keith found himself at the movie studios. Small, plastic bag with the empanadas Lance’s mom had made them, dangled from his fingers as he stood, a bit awkwardly. 

Lance had asked him to come to set today for the first time in a month. It used to be a pretty usual thing — he’d drive a critically sleep-deprived Lance to set, bring him some food because the young actor would forget it himself, and spend the rest of the day working on his laptop on an empty table of the floor as he watched Lance get dragged from make-up chairs to meetings with other actors or the directors. 

Today wasn’t any different. Except that it was Saturday, and Keith didn’t actually have any work to do. He  _ guessed _ he could start some things he needed to finish next week but… he was 23 and irresponsible enough to not feel too guilty about wasting a day on set doing nothing.

He leaned back against the wall, head landing with a soft thunk. What was he even doing here anyway? He hadn’t had a proper conversation with Lance in literal  _ weeks _ , and to say that the car ride here was awkward would be an understatement. Keith knew it was at least seventy percent his own fault for pushing Lance away, but wasn’t Shiro always going on about “taking the time to get in sync with your feelings” and wasn't that exactly what he was doing? Ehh, maybe not  _ exactly _ , but, close enough. 

With his head turned to the right, he didn’t notice the footsteps approaching from his left until suddenly someone was talking to him. 

“Hey, man! I noticed you standing here and thought-” at this point the person in question finally noticed Keith’s spooked eyes and the way he’d jerked in their direction at the sound of their voice. In front of Keith stood Hunk, one of the nicest guys he’d ever met. He worked around set as a technical guy and had been here every time Keith had visited in the past. “Oh, sorry,” the friendly giant said, “I didn’t mean to scare you.” 

He held up two plates filled to the brim with food. “I brought you some lunch.” 

Keith looked up at the other man and smiles. “You didn’t scare me,” he lied, and accepted one of the plates. “Thanks for the food.” 

Hunk smiled and Keith couldn’t help but compare it to a sunflower. “No problem, man.” The two sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall as they quietly munched on their food. 

Keith could appreciate this, this easy silence that didn’t need to be filled. He could appreciate Hunk and his friendly smiles and easy conversations. 

They watched in silence as several crew members, actors, directors, and people Keith couldn’t even imagine what they’d be doing there walk past, all in varying states of distress. 

Then, Hunk coughed and carefully broke the silence. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you here,” he said, not looking at Keith. 

And Keith may socially not be the most apt person, but he could understand where this conversation was going. So, he took a bit longer to chew his bite of donut, but then swallowed and answered. “Yeah. It’s… been awhile since I’ve been here.” 

At this, Hunk turned his head to look at him, friendly brown eyes regarding him peacefully. “Everything okay?” He frowned a bit. “Between you and Lance, I mean.” 

Suddenly, the half-empty plate of food seemed a lot more interesting than it did two minutes ago. Keith didn’t know what to say. “Uhh,” he swallowed another sugary bite of donut, “yeah, we’re- we’re cool.” It did not sound convincing, Keith was at least aware of that fact. 

“So,” Hunk was trying to catch his eyes again, “you two didn’t break up or anything, right?” 

Keith whipped his head up, eyes wide and cheeks red. “Uhh, what? Break up?” 

Hunk winced. “Oh, shit. Tough subject? I’m sorry for bringing it up.” He actually started wringing his hands together in worry and Keith  _ had _ to reassure him. Hunk was too sweet of a man to be kept in worry.

“No! No, that’s not- We uhh,” Keith swallowed, willing himself to say the next words, “we were never together. He’s just my, uhh, best friend.” He looked down at his food again, hoping Hunk didn’t catch onto the layers upon layers of sloppily wrapped feelings that lay beneath those words. 

Hunk seemed about to say something when — thank the gods above — his phone screen lit up with a text message and he got distracted. “Oh!” he said, “looks like Lance and Allura are shooting their scene right now.” He stuffed his phone away and turned to Keith. “Wanna go watch?” 

Keith shrugged and set his plate on the floor. He had nothing better to do anyways. 

\- - -

The two of them strolled leisurely to the set where Lance and Allura were shooting. It wasn’t hard to find, for about two dozen people surrounded the half-room the two actors were stood in. A camera man sat high in a chair, a big, heavy-looking camera sat half on his shoulder, but mostly supported by the chair itself. 

A director Keith had seen around before was talking to Lance and Allura, waving his hand around the room in big motions. The two actors stood next to each other as they listened carefully.

Keith refused to notice how the teal button down, stuffed into the dark slacks that hugged Lance’s ass and long legs  _ fantastically _ , exposed his bronzed forearms and made his shoulders seem even wider than normally, and,  _ fuck _ . 

He swallowed and looked away, hoping no one had noticed his brief lack of self control. Instead opting to focus on the highlighter one of Allura’s assistants was bringing on to her face at the last second. The small girl was flitting around the actress like a little bee, tilting the actress’ head this way and that, all the while Allura kept her eyes on the man in front of her. 

It wasn’t long before the director took a step back and made a hand motion at the cameraman, who nodded back and started fiddling with the big thing again. Lance turned to Allura, and Keith watched with a small ache in his heart as Lance ducked his head down so Allura could reach the top of his head and fix some wayward strands. 

The whole thing was disgustingly cute and Keith had to keep himself from scowling too hard.  _ He _ wanted to card his fingers through Lance’s hair. 

It took all of the crew a few moments to get everything into place — lights had to be adjusted, the extras took their places to make the set seem like a crowded airport but not take the spotlight from Allura and Lance — and  _ finally _ everything was in place and a stagehand jumped in front of the camera with a black and white board with the take-count and scene number and everything on it. 

And then they were filming. 

The people in the background walked around or stood in small groups, but the focus was on Lance. He was running through the crowd, making excuses as he ran into people, all the while the cameraman on the wheeled chair smoothly followed him. 

“Sarah!” Lance called, and Keith noticed another camera aimed at Allura’s face as she turned around at the sound of her character’s name. “Sarah, wait. Don’t- don’t step on that plane.” 

Keith was officially the most stupid person to ever walk on the face of earth. How was it that only when Lance said those words — the exact same words from the scene they’d ran through together all those weeks ago — did he recognize the scene they were recording? There was a  _ literal airport _ set up behind them, but  _ no, _ Keith had been too busy with checking Lance out in his gorgeous pants to notice it. And now it was too late; he couldn’t walk out now. He’d have to watch Lance tell Allura he  _ loved _ her and look at them  _ kiss _ . 

Maybe, Keith mused, this could be like… an exercise for him. To get over his soul-crushing crush on his best friend. You know, seeing him with someone else might make him realise that Lance was way better off with someone like Allura. Someone just as gorgeous and loving and nice and— 

Yeah. So.

Allura and Lance, in the meantime, were continuing the scene like Keith’s soul hadn’t just left his body. 

“Antonio?” Allura said, voice properly high to portray her character’s girly innocence. Keith couldn’t help but compare it to his own version of Sarah, who had, decidedly, been a lot less innocent and a lot more silent anger towards her lover. “What are you doing here? I thought you were with Francesca.” And much like Keith had done, Allura too scowled a bit. Though he was sure it looked a lot more attractive on Allura’s make-upped face than it had on Keith’s. 

And as Lance stammered about how Francesca and Antonio never did anything God wouldn’t approve of, Keith told himself to  _ stop _ comparing himself to Allura — a literal actress. 

(Though, even he knew his comparing didn’t come from a place in his heart where he was insecure about his own acting skills, and more from a place where he wondered if Lance had looked at him like that, too. Had Lance’s blue eyes shone with adoration like they did when he was looking at Allura?) 

He tuned back in just as Allura went, “I don’t care, Antonio. I’ve had enough of your lies and your—” 

Keith watched as the people in the background looked up at Lance’s exclamation. Keith distracted himself with looking at the cameramen and all the tiny buttons they pushed and switches they adjusted as they tried to catch the best shot of the two actors. Hunk actually leaned over to point out some of the technical stuff and explained them pretty well to Keith, who knew next to nothing about these kinds of things. 

When the two turned back to look at their friends again, Allura was just whipping around, grip tight on the handle of her pink suitcase as she shoots a cutting glare at Lance. “No, Antonio. I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore.” She frustratedly tangled a hand in her long hair and when she let go, tears were welling up in her eyes. “Save those pretty words or yours for someone else.” 

Lance took a step forward, making Allura immediately step back. His eyebrows were curled upwards, the corners of his lips pulled down as his cheeks flushed with emotion. His hair was disheveled and Keith found himself wanting to card his fingers through it as if he could comfort Lance and make the troubled expression go away. 

“Goodbye, Antonio,” Alllura said. Tears were streaming down her face and she quickly wiped them away — turning her head to the side to give the camera a perfect shot — as she took her suitcase in hand. 

She was only able to take three steps before Lance’s fingers curled around her wrists and he spoke his next heartbroken lines. “No.  _ No.  _ Please, Sarah.  _ Sarah _ .” 

Allura took her time turning around and Keith breathed in sharply. He knew what was coming next. Knew it by heart. He wasn’t sure his heart wouldn’t break as the next words left Lance’s tongue. 

“Sarah, I… “ Lance’s eyes shot from Allura’s eyes to her lips and back, the cameras around them zoomed in close. “I love you.” 

Keith’s sharp intake of breath didn’t go unnoticed by Hunk, and the sweet man turned his head to look at him in worry. Keith just hoped he’d think it was because the emotions of the scene got to him. 

Lance leaned in hesitantly, their lips just a breath apart. Tension was high in the air, no one in the room dared to breathe. 

And then he leaned down. Captured Allura’s lips in the kiss Keith never got. Wrapping one arm around her waist as the other tangled in her hair. And Allura kept her balled-up fists against his chest. A chest Keith had seen shake with laughter and with tears, seen rise and fall with relaxed, sleepy breaths — but a chest, he had never touched like that.  _ Would  _ never touch like that. 

Keith had read enough romance novels to know that this was the point where the main character started to compare the situation to being unable to look away from a trainwreck. But this was not like watching a trainwreck, Keith thought. The trainwreck was inside of him. It was in the stuttering of his heart and the quickening of his breath. It was in the trembling of hands and the shaking of his knees. 

He  _ was  _ the trainwreck. And he didn’t know how to stop.

Before he really knew what was going on, he was taking shaking steps backwards. Somewhere, he recognized the director shouting a loud  _ “Cut!”  _ and Hunk’s calling after him, but it didn’t matter because he was already halfway to the door and he couldn’t  _ stop.  _ Couldn’t stop feeling like his heart was being shattered —  _ again _ . Couldn’t stop shaking and couldn’t stop  _ running. _

He ran till he couldn’t anymore. Dropped down somewhere on a small patch of grass on the set and cried. He let the tears stream down his cheeks, let them catch in his eyelashes and collect in the corners of his mouth. 

His breaths came in tiny shocks, shaking his entire body as he tried to reel them in. He was still in public and he couldn’t- God, just thinking about Lance finding him like this made the anxiety that had been settling in his gut for the past weeks to flare up. 

He couldn’t- Lance couldn’t know. He could  _ never  _ know. He couldn’t know that Keith had loved him — because that’s what this was,  _ love  _ — for  _ months _ . Had been pining after him, imagined kissing him and holding his hands and cuddling him, while his best friend was under the impression that nothing was ever wrong. 

Fuck. He felt gross. Like he’d been taking advantage of Lance and his unwavering kindness every since these  _ stupid fucking  _ feelings had started. 

Shakingly, he got up, wiping his nose on the sleeve of his sweater and attempting to erase to tears’ tracks off his cheeks. It was a lost cause, but it distracted him enough not to notice the familiar rise and fall of footsteps behind him until the man stood right next to him. 

“ _ Keith _ ,” Lance breathed, and he placed a gentle hand on Keith’s arm. “Keith, what’s- Are you okay?” 

Fuck, Keith thought.  _ Fuck _ . 

“Umm. Uhh, yeah. I-” he sniffed softly, “I’m… I’m fine.” He closed his eyes and could only pray that Lance would drop the subject. Would just fall into step nect to him and start talking about something dumb like some gossip he picked up on while in make-up today. 

But of course — because this was  _ Lance _ — he didn’t drop the subject. In fact, he only tightened his grip on Keith’s arm. 

“Shouldn’t you be with… with  _ Allura _ .” Keith said her name like she personally and purposefully broke his heart. While all she had been doing was her job, Keith knew. 

Lance was silent. Keith didn’t dare turn around and face those blue eyes, but he could imagine Lance’s confused frown as he said, “Are you okay? For real, Keith I-” A frustrated sigh left his lips and his grip tightened around Keth’s wrist. “These last weeks  _ sucked _ and I… I just want us to go back to how we were before…” 

_ Before I ripped your heart out and threw it on the ground before walking it over with a smile on my face. _

But instead of saying that, Lance stayed quiet. And so Keith decided to say it for himself.

“Before  _ what _ , Lance?” He yanked his arm out of Lance’s hold and turning his glare at him as he turned around. “Before you decided it was a good idea to almost  _ kiss _ me? To… to tell me you  _ loved me _ like it’s not the only thing I’ve wanted to hear since…” He turned his face to the side, hating the way his throat closed up and he had to force the words out past the tears. “And then, you tell me I’m  _ just your friend _ . And I’m just… I’m so tired. I-” He pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes and breathed shakily. 

He was so wrapped up in his own intense emotions that he didn’t notice Lance’s silence until he broke it. “What… what are you saying?” Lance’s voice was small, tender. Like the boy was afraid to break Keith further.  _ Like that’d be even possible _ . 

Keith scoffed and let his arms drop to his side. “I’m  _ saying _ ,” he said, “that I’m  _ in love with you _ , dumbass.” Right when he said it, his eyes drop to the ground, he watched the green grass beneath the black sole of his boot. It was better than looking up at the sky, where he’d only find blue blue blue. “But it’s-” He shrugged, still not looking up. “It’s whatever. I’m not… asking anything of you. And I’ll-” 

But before he could say anything more, two hands cupped his face and a pair of soft lips pressed to his. He tensed as Lance’s fingers shifted to the back of his neck and the lips started moving. 

But then reality caught up to him and he melted into it. He latched onto the front of Lance’s shirt, fingers curling in the stiff fabric of the teal button down that looks  _ so damn well _ around those shoulders. 

Lance shifted and his lips slot perfectly between Keith’s and —  _ whoa _ . They were kissing. Breathing in sharply and pressing their lips together like it was the last thing keeping them alive. They were  _ kissing _ . 

When Lance finally pulled back, there were tears in his eyes — real ones this time — and he was smiling as he wiped the last wayward tear from Keith’s cheek with his thumb. “I love you too, idiot.” 

And this time, it was Keith who closed the distance between them. 

  
  
  
  


  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> p-please spare me  
> i swear i meant to make this fluffy!! this just..... kinda happened lmao   
> anyways, i'm pretty sure i'm going to write an epilogue, because school's out and i have free time again!!!!
> 
> thanks eva for betaing!! lub u <3 pls follow her [here](https://twitter.com/freshlyklance) (she's a bean)  
> and if you want to be my friend (i swear i'm nice uwu) you can follow [my twitter](https://twitter.com/lvecean)
> 
> thanks for reading!!!! leave something? if you liked it?


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